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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

The so-called "419" scam is a type of fraud dominated by criminals from Nigeria and other countries in Africa. Victims of the scam are promised a large amount of money, such as a lottery prize, inheritance, money sitting in some bank account, etc.

Victims never receive this non-existent fortune but are tricked into sending their money to the criminals, who remain anonymous. They hide their real identity and location by using fake names and fake postal addresses as well as communicating via anonymous free email accounts and mobile phones.

Keep in mind that scammers DO NOT use their real names when defrauding people.
The criminals either abuse names of real people or companies or invent names or addresses.
Any real people or companies mentioned below have NO CONNECTION to the scammers!

Read more about such scams here or in our 419 FAQ. Use the Scam-O-Matic to verify suspect emails.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "Mr. James Williams" <charleskwame53@gmail.com>
Reply-To: james_williams1051@yahoo.com
Date: Sun, 12 Oct 2014 15:59:30 +0100
Subject: Urgent Assistance

--
Attention Friend,

I am Mr. James Williams Abbas from Syria. I am in Africa at the moment
as a political refugee because of the recent problems of my country.

I have a huge sum of money deposited in a deposit firm and I need your
urgent help to quickly bring out this deposit so that we can invest it
under your name for investment in your country. Because of the
on-going crises, all banks, schools, hospital, market etc. had been on
massive destruction making life very difficult live so this is the
only thing left for me now and I want to use it to start a new life.
This transaction requires immediate attention because of the current
political situation in my country (Syria) and I do not want to lose
this money to the rebels or government.

It is a huge sum of money and I am ready to offer you 30% of the money
to stand as the beneficiary to claim the deposit and and transfer it
to your account in your country for investment. I believe you can help
me, but on the contrary please forgive my indulgence and delete this
e-mail content without sharing with anyone.

If you are interested and able to handle this for me in all honesty
without any betrayal of trust that I shall repose on you then contact
me for more details.Please note that this transaction is confidential
and should be kept in top secret until we have completed the transfer
of fund to your account in your country for investment. Please get
back to me with my private E- mail. (james_williams1051@yahoo.com)

Thank you very much for your understanding.

Regards,
Mr. James Williams Abbas

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